Excited to learn about the Gov of the USofA!</p>
<p>How tough is this class at your school?</p>
<p>Anyone taking this and APUSH at the same time? </p>
<p>I here that it is hard work to do this^ but studying kind of overlaps which is nice</p>
<p>The only true overlap there is between the two subjects is the first chapter of Gov when they talk about why the constitution was necessary. Besides that they are in two hemispheres because with APUSH you really don’t need to know anything about how the government operates. This is because APUSH focuses on the events that have occurred. Gov might help indirectly by giving deeper understanding of how politics and government operations shaped our history, but if you’re looking for 3-4 chapters of Gov to be a review of APUSH topics then you will be disappointed.</p>
<p>@jimmyboy23 is gov an overwhelming amount of work? Or is it another 1 semester of college like AP psych or econ?</p>
<p>My school had it set up as a semester just like it would have been in college. Government is just keeping up with the reading and making sure you get down pat any unfamiliar vocab. The only kids who get below a C are the kids who don’t read. If you have it for a year then it should be a breeze.</p>
<p>@jimmyboy23 is gov an overwhelming amount of work? Or is it another 1 semester of college like AP psych or econ?</p>
<p>@jimmyboy23 Is spot on about the overlap.</p>
<p>After you get past the constitution stuff, almost everything after that doesn’t really require a strong history background. Knowing some U.S history might help but it’s not very essential to getting through this course. I actually took AP Gov without taking APUSH or any American History class before it. Might have learned a few things in middle school but nothing that I can actually recall very well. </p>
<p>I took AP Gov last year as a freshman (2013-2014) along with one other AP. I am confident I got a 5 on the exam. I used Princeton Review (2014 Edition) and Crash Course. If you have to chose one, get Crash Course, it is the best book ever written for AP Government in history. A lot of the reading in it is word for word in the exam. The class itself is not much content material, but there is a logic aspect to it when thinking about politics. You have to know your content very well though for the FRQs. In order to get a 5, aim for around 95/120 points which is tough.</p>
<p>I ended up getting the 5 Steps to a 5 books for both US Gov and Macro (recent editions)–wish I knew about Crash Course before I ordered them. </p>
<p>I got my scores back for gov, I took as a senior. Easy 5 guys. No review book, just did one practice test. Hardly paid attention during lecture… I mean cmon. The class material is simply easy. </p>
<p>I took this class as a Freshman (rising Junior now). As long as you either pay attention in class or do the reading you’re good. I got a 5 by skimming the book and paying attention in class. I liked the 5 Steps to a 5 review book - though for those of you taking AP Macro as well, do not get the 5 Steps for that, as it was not helpful at all (same with the Micro 5 Steps book).</p>
<p>I took APUSH this year and didn’t find background knowledge very helpful except for basic constitution info (3/5ths, VA Plan, Great Compromise), as stated earlier.</p>
<p>barrons is a great prep book for this exam!! I recommend it</p>
<p>Get the Crash Course book for Gov. That is the most valuable tip about this class. I read it the night before and did well on the exam because it does such a good job of giving you concise and clear info. </p>
<p>I took APUSH and Gov at the same time this year and personally it helped. Especially when we learned about civil rights at the same time in both classes. I think they definitely go hand in hand, but they don’t really overlap too heavily besides that. @jimmyboy23 gets it. </p>
<p>Leading up to the exam, do practice tests and FRQ’s. This class is a lot of common sense along with memorizing court cases and terms. But especially if you have it for a full year, (my school has it for a semester only) you can get an A and a 4/5 on the test. My teacher was a joke and the workload light and many people did fine…so if you even put a little effort in, you can do quite well. Good luck next year! :)</p>
<p>Joining the party (heehehehehe gov jokes) here! Definitely excited for this one because I’m 95% sure I will have the same teacher I had for APUSH last year (5 yes!) who is a reader for the gov test and the day after the US exam pulled up the gov FRQ’s and explained that we could pull almost perfect scores at that moment due to just some gov fringes we talked about in US. Seriously, people at our school usually take mass naps the last half hour of the frq time for this test while usually most are frantically racing to finish the other test’s.</p>
<p>I took gov last year and had an absolutely horrible teacher, but Princeton Review pulled me through and I got a five.</p>
<p>The exam is pretty detail-oriented in my opinion, so I’d recommend you start studying a little earlier. I started maybe two or three weeks before the exam. </p>
<p>My son’s high school requires both Econ and Gov but only offers regular classes. Therefore, he took Macroecon and Gov at the community college and transferred to credits to his high school. He got As on both classes but didn’t take the AP tests. Does that look bad for the competitive colleges?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that taking the test scores are not as important as taking, and doing well in the class</p>
<p>@steventocollege @151Andrew151 I read somewhere that colleges determine the rigor of the AP class by comparing the class grade to the AP score, because the tests are standardized, whereas each school’s AP classes/teachers are different. For example, an A in the class and a 2 on the test will make the class look easy to colleges compared to, say, a B in the class and a 5 on the test.</p>